Flip a coin

Hagar · 30-06-2004 8:51am #1

What is the most common term used now when flipping a coin eg at the start of a football match etc. It used to be "heads or harps".
Now what is it "harps or europe", "harp or map"

DEmeant0r · 30-06-2004 8:52am

I think it's always been "heads or tails"

Oriel · 30-06-2004 12:49pm

Originally posted by Demeant0r
I think it's always been "heads or tails"

But on the Euro coin - which side is the "head"? The Map side?

Fozzy · 30-06-2004 1:24pm

The head would be the side with the value of the coin on it....which would be the map side.

Bard · 30-06-2004 1:42pm

Originally posted by Fozzy
The head would be the side with the value of the coin on it....which would be the map side.

And what about the Euro coins that have an actual picture of a persons head on the other side to the value/map side?

RobertFoster · 30-06-2004 3:01pm

Originally posted by Bard
And what about the Euro coins that have an actual picture of a persons head on the other side to the value/map side?

Curiouser and curiouser! We, being the only English speaking country with the euro at the moment, and not actually having a head of state on our coins, would be the only ones using that expression, would we not?

Big Ears · 30-06-2004 4:10pm

I think the expression head or tails ? , has more to do with front and back e.g. headlights , tailights than it does with there actually being a head on the thing .

map side =heads country's emblem =tails

Hagar · 30-06-2004 6:29pm

AFAIK "heads or tails" is an Americanism.
There is usually the head of a President on one side so this became the "head".
I think "tails" was then just the opposite.

tba · 30-06-2004 10:49pm

head or harps that what I always used, bit pointless now

Badbonez · 30-06-2004 11:07pm

Originally posted by Hagar
AFAIK "heads or tails" is an Americanism.
There is usually the head of a President on one side so this became the "head".
I think "tails" was then just the opposite.

Maybe from the quarter? The US quarter used to have a bust of George Washington on one side (heads) and the American Bald Eagle on the other (tails).

Nowdays there is still George but the flipside are the US states. Still, that's tails.

Stephen · 01-07-2004 12:14am

i always used the "heads or tails" expression. heads or harps just sounds wrong.
forget the arguments about there being neither heards nor tails on euro coins, its not literal.

Capt'n Midnight · 02-07-2004 9:22pm

well seeing as how Irish coins used to have animals on the back it could well have been - Harps or Tails ..

article6 · 02-07-2004 9:31pm

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
well seeing as how Irish coins used to have animals on the back it could well have been - Harps or Tails ..

Yep. But since they all had a head, 'heads or harps' is just as good. (Except for the pipes on the 2p piece... what was up with the 2p piece? 'Twas bigger than the 20p so it was...)

Pigman II · 03-07-2004 1:21pm

For just such an occasion I carry around a greek 2 euro coin. That way it's a choice between 'cock' (see sweden) and 'bull'.

woosaysdan · 03-07-2004 1:24pm

i just go with paper/scissors/rock!!!

daveJAM · 04-07-2004 5:01pm

I heard an argument about this before, basically it states:

Heads or tails is an english expression. Heads refers to the head on the monarch on the coin. Because we have the harp instead, the harp actually is our head. Therefore "Heads or Harps" is the same thing.

Not sure how true this is tho.

raster · 05-07-2004 6:11pm

I agree with you that the "head" of the euro coin is the variable national side, which for IE is the Harp. For other countries like BE and NL it is an actual head of a leader.

Flip a coin

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